


Flushed

by alienandroid



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bulges and Nooks (Homestuck), F/F, F/M, Human/Troll Relationship (Homestuck), I don't know how to write a lisp but i'm trying, M/M, Non-Binary Roxy Lalonde, References to Depression, Sollux Is Bad At One Night Stands, Trolls on Earth, smut in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:29:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21814462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alienandroid/pseuds/alienandroid
Summary: In which Sollux Captor sucks at one-night stands and Dave Strider is decidedly the worst (or best) wing-man in history.A story where Sollux finds himself realizing just how complicated human romance is.
Relationships: Background Roxy Lalonde/John Egbert/Terezi Pyrope, Pale Aradia Megido/Sollux Captor, Referenced Past Feferi Peixes/Sollux Captor, Sollux Captor/Original Character(s), Sollux Captor/Reader, background Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 7
Kudos: 59





	1. chapter one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here. It's been years since I've written any kind of Homestuck fanfiction and this just kind of hit me.
> 
> All characters are over the age of eighteen - most of them in their early twenties. This takes place in an alternate universe where SBURB never happened and trolls / humans live together on Earth. Don't expect any mentions of the game and do expect plenty of other variances from canon.

She’d seen him around campus before, but this was her first time seeing him up close. The breath she'd been taking found itself trapped in her chest, only for her to take the sharpest of inhales when he leaned in closer. She was tall but he was even taller, and she couldn't remember feeling so small under someone's gaze before. Despite the mismatched lenses hiding his eyes from her, she could feel the weight of his stare. 

Her own gaze shifted to focus on a flash of yellow; the tips of his forked tongue had dragged their way along his bottom lip. The hand he had pressed against the wall behind her was shifting, and suddenly his fingers were in her dark hair as his other hand cradled the side of her head. 

Then he was leaning closer once more, and she could feel her heart pounding so erratically that it echoed through her ears and drowned out the bass of whatever song was blaring from the next room. His lips were so close she could almost taste them. But before their lips could meet, his body was torn from hers and a fist was suddenly colliding with his cheek. 

“‘Tha fuck?” His hand reached up and she watched as his fingers grazed the very spot he’d been punched, only to slowly turn and stare at his assailant. 

“Get the fuck off her, you freak!’

Her knees were weak as she took in the sight before her - her ex-boyfriend stood in front of the boy she’d just been about to kiss with a feral expression. Both his jaw and fists were clenched, and the way the muscles corded in his neck might have been intimidating to another human. 

The troll in front of her, however, hardly looked intimidated. He had been surprised by the punch, at first, but now he simply stared down at Wyatt’s form with an expression that looked more bored than anything else. He glanced back over are her. 

“Thith your mathesprithe?” He’d asked as a dark brow of his raised from behind his bi-colored glasses. 

The term didn’t register with her at first, and her dark eyes blinked several times before the vodka in her system allowed her to piece together what the troll was asking her. 

“Uh, no. Not anymore,” came her reply, her voice every bit the breathy Southern kilt that had drawn him towards her.

There was a sudden static to the air, and Wyatt found himself pushed to the side by dancing red and blue lights. The troll in front of her appeared completely nonplussed by forcibly moving the struggling form of her ex-boyfriend to the wall opposite them. He was more focused on the human woman still in front of him.

He stared at her, that thick brow of his raised once more to pose a question he already knew the answer to. Red and blue sparks flickered around the edges of his glasses as he kept Wyatt out of the way, giving the dark-haired human in front of him the time and space to process what he was asking.

Moments later the pair were seen leaving the party with the troll's arm around her waist and the human's cheeks flushed the prettiest of pinks. It wasn’t until the apartment door slammed behind them that the troll’s psionics released Wyatt’s struggling form. A short elevator ride later had the unlikely pair of human and troll struggling to keep their urges at bay, and it wasn’t until they were tucked behind the privacy of her studio apartment that she finally felt his lips on hers.

And that was how Sollux and Tiffany met.

—-

The morning after had been interesting, to say the least. Tiffany had woken up to the feeling of someone nuzzling the back of her neck and the sound of soft snores in her ear. Her head pounded and her stomach felt queasy in a way that was all too familiar to the brunette after a night out. A soft groan left her lips and she felt herself dragged closer to the body lying next to her.

_ Not Wyatt, then. _

No, the troll lying next to her was nothing like her ex-boyfriend. He wasn’t human, for one thing; the gray tone of his skin and colorful horns was proof enough of that. His short hair was tousled and stood up at angles not that much different from the night before, and two sets of fangs peeked out from under his upper lip. Flashes of the previous night’s events drifted through her mind and Tiffany was so preoccupied with piecing together the events of the night prior that she hadn’t noticed that the troll lying next to her was now awake and peering up at her through bleary, mismatched eyes.

“Oh!” She’d exclaimed. Her cheeks flushed a soft pink once she’d realized that she’d been caught staring.

Although, was there really anything for her to be embarrassed of after last night? The thought brought another flush to Tiffany’s cheeks before she sat up suddenly and held her sheets against her chest.

“Uhm. Good morning?” Her tone framed her words more as a question than a sentence, but she was flustered and trying to catch her bearings.

Tiffany wasn’t used to dealing with the aftermath of a one-night stand and it showed in the way she stumbled and floundered to gain control of the situation. She was trying so hard to look normal and act  _ cool _ but she was very much out of her element. It didn’t help that she could feel his gaze on her as her sheets fell in the middle of pulling a rumpled t-shirt over her head. It took Tiffany a moment to realize the article of clothing she had grabbed had been his, and the undignified squeak that had left her lips as she scrambled to change had earned the smallest of laughs from the male in her bed.

To Tiffany’s credit, she wasn’t the only one in the room who was new to one-night stands. That’s what the humans called it, right? Trolls relied heavily on certain quadrants to facilitate sexual relations, but it’s been a long time since Sollux had filled any of his. Perhaps that was part of what has gotten into him the night before? Jegus knows that he wasn’t any kind of Troll Casanova. How he’d ended up in Tiffany’s bed was still kind of a mystery to him.

The pieces had yet to fall entirely into place, but the fog around his mind began to clear as he found himself watching the brunette dress. Her hair barely brushed her shoulders and fell around her face in a tousled mess that he very vividly remembered tangling his fingers in. Her neck was home to several dark marks he’d left the night before, and the cotton shorts pulled over her hips hide away the thighs he’d spent so much time between previously.

Humans weren’t particularly his type, but he found her attractive. 

It wasn’t until he’d shifted to begin dressing that he’d started to piece together last night’s events. Midterms had just passed, and he’d been convinced to go to some party with Dave and Karkat. Dave had cited needing to blow off some steam and Karkat only agreed to go if he could bring along Sollux - the latter of which had only agreed to go when Dave had promised to start wearing pants in the common area of the apartment Sollux shared with Karkat. 

There had been far more humans at the party than Sollux had anticipated, and many of them had found it hilarious that trolls could get drunk off Faygo much easier than they ever could with human liquor. Again, Dave Strider had convinced Sollux to do something in a social setting that he wasn’t particularly excited to do, and the next thing he knew he was kissing the pretty girl from his Human Literature course. The specific events building up to that moment still slipped his mind, but Sollux decided that semantics mattered very little in the scheme of things.

“Uhm, did you hear me?”

The human -  _ Tiffany -  _ had apparently asked Sollux some sort of question as she stood across from him with flushed cheeks and a puzzled expression.

_ Why did she blush so much? _ Sollux found it hard to focus when his brain seemed to associate every instance of pink across her cheeks with the sight of her beneath him in her bed.

“I’m thorry - what?” he’d asked.

“Did you want something to eat?” Tiffany repeated as she tied up her hair in a ponytail that hardly looked any better than its previous tousled state.

“Uh. Thure.”

It wasn’t much longer until the pair found themselves sitting next to one another at Tiffany’s tiny kitchen island. She’d whipped together some slightly burnt egg and cheese omelets from what little groceries remained in her fridge. Sollux had been ravenous and gone through his entire plate before Tiffany had touched even half of hers, and he found himself quietly tapping his fingers against the counter as he waited for her to finish.

He wondered if that was strange. Should he leave? Was there any reason to linger around? Did Tiffany even want him there?

It was with a rush that Sollux started to realize that he had zero idea of what to do in this kind of situation. Any other time he would have reached for his phone to message one of his friends, but he’d been unable to locate the cellular device while Tiffany had been busy cooking breakfast.

His gaze slid back towards the girl next to him as she picked at her food. He felt much safer in sneaky glances now that his glasses were covering his eyes again, and the troll took a few moments just to watch Tiffany.

The human looked about as uncomfortable as he did. They had eerily similar posture in that moment, both with their shoulders turned in and their arms close to their bodies as they could get them. Tiffany appeared to be trying to fold in on herself, and Sollux was doing the same. The thought that they were both clearly as uncomfortable as the other should have brought forth some feeling of relief, but Sollux’s thoughts were already spiraling and there was no real getting them back.

“I thould probably head out,” he’d finally said, his eyes still settled on the sight of the brunette next to him. Her dark eyes finally focused on Sollux, and she gave a small nod.

“Yeah, totally. Uhm, I’ll walk you out?” She offered.

When Sollux glanced back to the door and noted its distance, she flushed again. The door was less than four feet from her kitchen, why did she need to walk him out? That didn’t stop her from standing, and it certainly didn’t stop Sollux from letting her. The door creaked as Sollux opened it and the hallway outside Tiffany’s apartment looked more familiar than he’d expected. 

“I’ll, uhm, I’ll see you around,” came Tiffany’s soft voice.

Sollux turned back towards her and for a moment his brow raised in confusion - only for a moment of realization to wash over him. Of  _ course _ he would see her again. They shared a class together.

“Of courthe,” he’d started, only to clear his throat in a slightly nervous manner than he was decidedly not used to. “Right. Thee you in clath.”

Before he could get his bearings and leave, there was that damn flush of hers again. Tiffany’s tanned cheeks were tinted with a shade of pink that - again - held rather inappropriate connotations to Sollux. It wasn’t until her bottom lip, so full and...slightly bruised? found its way trapped between her teeth that something in Sollux shifted.

_ That _ was the look that had started it all. She’d looked up at him with that exact expression the night before - so uncertain but so  _ interested  _ \- that Sollux had been unable to help himself in kissing her up against that wall.

It was only logical that he do the same now.

Tiffany found herself with one hand gripping the handle of her door and the other fisted in Sollux’s shirt as he pressed his lips against hers. It wasn’t quite as intoxicating as the night before, as they both clearly needed showers and had yet to brush their teeth, but that didn’t stop her from melting into the kiss. Sollux hand one hand at her waist and the other tangled in her hair when a familiar voice echoed down the hall.

“What the actual fucking fuck?”

Sollux felt his whole-body tense, and Tiffany did the same. Sollux turned to see Dave fucking Strider’s head peeking out of an apartment door that the troll was all too familiar with.  _ When the fuck was he going to realize that the reason the hallway looked so familiar was because it was the same hallway  _ **_his own_ ** _ apartment was on? _

“Bye Sollux!” Tiffany’s voice and the sound of her door suddenly shutting was but a distance echo to Sollux.

He was too busy staring at Dave’s growing smirk in complete and utter terror.

He was never going to hear the end of this.


	2. chapter two

Sollux regretted having ever agreed to sharing an apartment with Karkat Vantas. Originally, it'd seemed like such a great idea. They'd both despised the idea of dorms and having to share a living space with a stranger had been terrifying. The fact that both childhood friends were attending the same university made the idea of living together seem like nothing but completely logical. Sollux's calculations, however, had failed to factor in one Dave Strider.

To be fair, it would have been difficult to factor in a variable he'd had yet to meet - but perhaps it was because Karkat was the last person in their friend-group that he would have assumed to have any kind of lasting relationship with a human. The pair had never really put a label on what they were and Karkat had given a big "fuck you" to the quadrant system after high-school, so while Sollux wasn't sure what the fuck was going on between the short troll and his weird "ironic and super cool" human - he very much knew that he wanted to strangle Dave in a way that was completely platonic. The guy spent more time in their apartment than he did his own dorm, and half the time refused to wear pants in communal living spaces. Yet, Karkat never said anything to the human to rectify the situation, despite Sollux's constant shit-talking and threats of bodily harm.

And boy was there about to be some bodily harm.

"Come on, man. You gotta spill all those sweet, juicy beans," urged Dave as Sollux had pushed past him to get into his and Karkat's apartment.

"When tha fuck did you become thuch a fucking gothip?" Sollux grumbled. 

His head hurt after so much Faygo, and all he wanted to do was pop his sopor prescription and pass the fuck out for the foreseeable future. And if he was being honest, his head was still reeling after being torn from his kiss with Tiffany by Dave's unwarranted and unwanted interruption. 

"Since you started fucking hot human chicks from our Lit class," Dave smirked.

The insufferable human was leaning against the kitchen counter as Sollux began rummaging through the cabinets. He'd grabbed a large glass of water and his sopor prescription before chugging both in hopes of alleviating the pounding headache forming at his temples. Looking at Dave's smug smirk wasn't helping, but it was Karkat's piercing voice that made his head ring even worse.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"

Sollux just groaned, and his slender fingers were suddenly pinching the bridge of his nose.

Of course Karkat would choose now to make an appearance. He looked just as about as bad as Sollux as he stumbled from his room, all bleary-eyed and tousled hair. Sollux tactfully chose to ignore how he was blatantly wearing one of Dave's old t-shirts because at least Karkat was wearing fucking  _ pants _ . 

"You're both so fucking loud. My head actually feels like someone is stabbing my think pan through my horns and you grub fuckers won’t shut up," groaned the shorter troll. He dropped down onto a stool at their kitchen island with a groan and reached his hand out for what remained of Sollux's water. Dave gave him a high-five instead.

Karkat looked about two seconds from reaching over the table and strangling his... _ whatever the fuck Dave was to him. _

Dave at least had the decency to eventually slide over a fresh glass of water for Karkat.

“Who’s pailing humans?” Karkat finally asked, after gulping down half of his water.

His cheeks turned red when Dave’s eyebrows rose from behind his shades, and Sollux snorted in lieu of laughter. 

“Tall, ornery and nerd!” Dave exclaimed, apparently choosing to show Karkat mercy just this once. His hand clapped over Sollux’s shoulder, only to get zapped by the psionic he was currently pestering. The yellow blood felt another one of his migraines coming, although this one seemed much more to do with his friends driving him up a wall versus his abilities. Or perhaps a mix of both. 

“Who?” Karkat asked as his thick brows furrowed together. Dave had pressed a box of Cheez-Its into his hands, and the troll was eating them by the handful. 

“Some babe from our Human Lit class,” Dave answered. “I don’t know her name, but she’s cute. Kind of sucks up to the prof all the time with her ‘proper grammar’ and ‘mastery of citations’ but whatever. Still way out of your league.”

“Most of Sollux’s relationships consist of those so wildly outside of his league that it’s started to feel almost normal,” Karkat pointed out, being incredibly unhelpful and grating on Sollux’s nerves as usual. 

Sollux’s migraine was getting worse and he could feel the throbbing in his head further intensify. 

“I’m calling bro-share-sesh,” Dave declared. “Being that we are bros and being that you have a can full of the most interesting beans I’ve heard in a while - I demand you spill them. The beans, I mean. Spill the beans, Sollux.”

Sollux pinched the bridge of his nose and his eyes flashed from behind his glasses.

“Sollux, come on. What was it that did it for her? Was it the light show you put on last night? Your fetish for a number? Or did you just glare at her like you’re doing now until she realized she absolutely had to take a one-way ticket to pound town? Did you bring your own bucket, or did she just happen to have one?” Dave’s rapid-fire questions were delivered in the same way his tangents always were - blunt, without filter, and designed to chip away at Sollux’s resolve until he snapped and stormed to his room. Sollux has been certain, and one point, that Dave has been black-rom flirting with him, but that was just Dave. He was a good guy when it all boiled down to it, he just got a kick of riling up everyone around him. Even Karkat was privy to Dave’s special brand of jackassery.

Only one thing had kept nagging at Sollux as he crawled into his bed.

Who took care of the pail?

———

“You’re sure that was  _ normal?”  _ Tiffany questioned her friend, peeling off the gloves she’d used while she had cleaned her shower. 

“It’s like, troll boinking 101, Tiff.”

The brunette didn’t look convinced. Being that she was planning on obtaining her baccalaureate in nursing, Tiffany had already taken a few basic anatomy courses both regarding humans and trolls. She was aware of both species’ basic biological functions and sexual practices, but her education had been medically and scientifically based. 

Her recollection of the previous night’s events was still murky at best. Mainly she just had brief flashes of moments like being pressed into her bed by Sollux or his claws ripping her bra in half and the way his forked tongue felt sliding along her thigh. But now that she had just finished cleaning up the disaster that was her shower, she faintly remembered being tossed off him and him tripping over himself and running into the bathroom. In hindsight, perhaps she should be grateful he hadn’t gotten all of  _ that  _ all over her bed.

As her gloves were tossed into the trash, the brunette turned to see one Roxy Lalonde draped over her bed with her phone in their hand and angled at a way that when paired with their pose appeared as if the blonde was taking suggestive photos of themselves. 

“You know I haven’t washed my sheets yet, right?” 

There was no break in Roxy’s facial expression as they snapped yet another photo of themselves, but at least they rolled off the bed in favor of sitting cross legged on Tiffany’s floor. 

“Besides, how was I supposed to know that trolls get off into literal buckets? It’s not like hot nerd troll gave me the heads up.” She continued with a shrug.

This caught Roxy’s attention.  _ Hot nerd troll _ was the closest they'd gotten to finding out the identity of their friend’s one-night stand. They'd been curious about the identity of Tiffany’s tango-partner from the moment they'd picked up their phone to hear Tiffany freaking out over the state of her shower. Roxy had immediately rushed over to assure the brunette that everything was fine and dandy and that no, she hadn’t fucked the poor yellow blood to death. There has been no hint as to the identity of said troll until now, despite Roxy’s persistence. It wasn’t even the troll part that surprised the blonde; they weren’t in their grandparents’ time after all. Trolls and humans hooked up more often than one might think, despite their difference in physiology, culture and - you know - humanity’s history of blatant prejudice towards alien-kind.

No, Roxy had just been surprised to learn that Tiffany had a one-night stand with anyone at all. The nursing-major had just gotten out of a weird on-again-off-again relationship with her high-school sweetheart and was about as outgoing as Roxy was introverted. Then again, maybe it made total sense that she’d get drunk and hook up with a  _ hot nerd troll,  _ as she put it.

“I’m trying to think of all the hot nerd trolls I might know, and I’m drawing a blank,” Roxy mused. “To be fair, I don’t talk to many. My cousin’s dating one though. Actually, I’m pretty sure both of my cousins are.”

“How many cousins do you even have?” Tiffany questioned. She was rummaging through her dresser drawers for clothes to put on after she’d shower. Roxy and her had planned to meet up for a study-date, and she probably shouldn’t be walking around campus looking like she’d been run over by a truck.

“Doesn’t matter,” Roxy shrugged again. “Did you get their number? Midterms are coming up and sex it a great stress reliever.” There was a slow smirk that crossed their lips at the suggestion, and they received a pair of bundled socks to the face in response. 

“No, I didn’t,” Tiffany replied tersely. 

“What a shame,” Roxy sighed.

“He lives down the hall, apparently.”

A slow, easy smirk crossed over Roxy’s full lips. They, suddenly, was all too aware of who  _ hot nerd troll  _ was; their cousin Dave spent more time in Karkat and Sollux’s apartment than socially acceptable and it was thru Dave that they'd met Tiffany in the first place. They were on their phone then, their thumbs flying over the touchscreen at a speed only Roxy Lalonde could manage. Tiffany had turned to tell Roxy that she’d be taking a shower, only to find the blonde smirking down at their phone with a devious expression that Tiffany was suddenly leery of.

The ping of her own phone and the subtle raise of Roxy’s brow did not help the unease settling over her stomach.

“What did you do?” Tiffany questioned, before picking up her phone from her nightstand.

“Nothing at all,” came Roxy’s easy reply.

The text from an unknown number of Tiffany’s phone said otherwise.

hot nerd, huh? ii'm flattered.  
  
  



	3. three.

“You reek.”

Tiffany had entered the campus bookstore with her laptop in one arm and a coffee carrier in the other. Her brow raised at her coworker’s greeting, and the brunette turned to see the troll draped over one of the bookstore’s couches rather than manning the register. As per usual.

“You know, Terezi, it wouldn’t kill you to maybe say ‘Good evening Tiffany, how are you?’ in greeting rather than hurling an insult my way every time you see me,” the human replied. Before making her way towards the register to clock in and begin her shift, the human made a brief pit-stop to hand Terezi one of the two coffees she had been holding.

“That would most definitely kill me,” Terezi countered. Her nose crinkled from under the bridge of her glasses, and there were several over-exaggerated sniffs as she held the cup of coffee under her nose. “You finally got my order right. I’m so proud!”

“Most people just say thank you,” Tiffany replied with a fond grin.

Terezi was, to put it lightly, a character. Tiffany only interacted with her during their closing shifts at the campus bookstore, but Terezi Pyrope had quickly become one of the human’s favorite people over the course of their semester so far. Sure, sometimes Terezi’s enthusiasm was impossible to match and Tiffany still couldn’t comprehend how her smell-o-vision worked - such a thing should have been physically impossible, even for trolls – but Terezi was funny and wicked smart and working with her meant Tiffany never had a dull shift.

“Thank you for the over-priced coffee that I will never repay you for,” Terezi replied, before propping her feet up on the coffee table in front of her. Her own laptop was set to the side with a textbook that she’d left open to air dry after assaulting the pages with her tongue. “Now please explain what I did to deserve you assaulting my nose with your stench.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I’m wearing black today. I thought you couldn’t really smell black?” Tiffany had been reading over some notes from their manager when Terezi continued to insult her, but the human hardly appeared bothered by it.

“I’m not talking about your  _ clothes _ , idiot.”

Tiffany didn’t really have the time to properly reply and asked Terezi just what the fuck she was talking about, as a bell tone suddenly rang out. Her eyes shifted towards the door as a customer wandered into the bookstore.

“Hey John,” Tiffany greeted the other human. “Forgot your notebook again?”

Tiffany only knew John Egbert from his frequent visits to the campus bookstore. He was in a few times a week, generally to purchase a notebook or pencil, or some other random piece of stationary he’d forgotten at home. He was a nice guy, if somewhat flighty, and she’d begun tacking her employee discount onto his purchases. She was already keying items into the register as he picked them up from the shelves and was so distracted that she almost missed the arrival of another customer. Terezi seemed to have it handled, however, as she’d loudly greeted one of her friends.

Tiffany couldn’t say she was particularly fond of Vriska Serket, and neither was John based on the way he’d tensed at her sudden arrival. But she was Terezi’s friend and Tiffany had dealt with much worse than the useless drivel that fell from her lips in the form of sickly-sweet insults. 

“Can’t stay and chat,” had been her curt response to Terezi’s cheerful greeting. The cerulean blood brushed past John in a manner than had their shoulders bumping, and Tiffany wasn’t blind to the way the gesture had Terezi’s brows furrowing and her posture suddenly straight. The force of Vriska storming past had him rubbing his shoulder and staring at Vriska in an unimpressed expression.

Vriska hardly cared. 

She grabbed a handful of scantrons from a display before turning right back around and retracing her path towards the door. John made a point of stepping out of her way, but that didn’t stop the sneer she’d sent his direction.

“You have to pay for those,” Tiffany stated, her arms crossed over her chest. The human had realized that Vriska’s predicted path had the troll heading for the bookstore’s exit, which was the opposite direction from the register. 

“I don’t  _ have _ to do anything,” Vriska drawled, stopping just long enough to flip her mane behind a shoulder and turn her gaze towards Tiffany to size her up. The troll’s nose twitched, and Tiffany looked a little confused as it seemed the Vriska  _ sniffed _ in her direction. “I especially don’t have to listen to tiny, irrelevant little humans like you.”

“Aren’t you banned from here?” Tiffany replied, and her eyes shifted to glance towards Terezi who was now standing next to John with a hand over his upper arm.  _ Huh, that was new. _

“Again. Don’t care,” Vriska countered. “Also, I don’t know what troll you’re fucking - nor do I give two flying shits - but its fucking midterms so maybe don’t.”

“...What?” It was Tiffany’s turn for her brows to furrow. Vriska’s words had her completely baffled, but the cerulean blood had disappeared from the bookstore without so much as giving the human a chance to clarify.

“I told you that you reek,” came Terezi’s voice from Tiffany’s side. The troll had snuck up on her co-worker to drop a few dollars on top of the till, and the brunette realized it was to pay for the testing sheets that Vriska had stolen.

“I don’t get it,” Tiffany countered.

“You’re with a troll too?” Came John’s bright voice as he dropped his purchased onto the counter. He seemed blissfully unaware of the glare sent his way from Terezi, and Tiffany’s poor brain struggled to piece together pieces of the puzzle that her friends were apparently dropping on her.

“What?” she repeated.

“Oh, well. Terezi mentioned the marking scent and so did Vriska, so I just assumed - “

“ _ Scent?” _ Tiffany’s eyes widened, and her gaze turned towards Terezi who just looked amused and very hard like she was trying not to smile at her friend’s impending crisis. “What do you mean  _ scent?” _

John just continued, in his blissfully unaware confidence, to explain to Tiffany exactly what they meant. “Well, trolls mark their quadrant partners during - ah - you know - “

Terezi cut off the male to chime in with the word, “Fucking!”

“Yes, Terezi. Thank you!” He’d smiled at the troll, before his eyes focused back on Tiffany. “Anyways. It’s just a troll thing. Something about marking scents let other trolls know that their quadrant mates are taken?” He shrugged.

The horrified expression on Tiffany’s features were enough to make John realize that perhaps he shouldn’t have so helpfully offered up his ‘expertise’ on the topic. “Uh - although I’m sure you don’t reek. That wasn’t entirely a nice thing for Terezi to say, and I’m sure she didn’t mean it to be so harsh - “

“You can  _ smell  _ when I’ve had sex?!” Tiffany was reeling, and she was blatantly ignoring John’s attempts to give her payment for his things. She was staring at Terezi instead, her eyes wide and her voice shrill. 

The troll in front of her just shrugged in an attempt to look nonchalant, although she could do nothing to hide the amused smirk sliding over her full lips. Terezi couldn’t help but find the situation just the  _ tiniest _ bit funny; after all, Tiffany was one of her favorite humans to get all riled up! 

“Tiffany,” she started, “I think every troll in a five-mile radius can smell that you’ve fucked another troll.”

_ “WHAT?!” _

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk, honestly, why i chose to write this bit of weird lore. i thought it was funny.  
> more sollux soon i promise!


	4. four.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has...been a while!  
> going back and rereading previously chapters was a bit cringey - namely in that i'd reread homestuck three times since i wrote this and i feel my characterization of dave was AWFUL. perhaps one day i will go back and edit, but for now i'm simply going to continue writing and how i don't make the same mistakes twice. thank you so much for the sweet comments and all the kudos! i did not anticipate that anyone would want to read this, but here we are.  
> also this is rated M for a reason, and might even go up to explicit depending on the content i'm including. if sexual situations or scenes make you uncomfortable or you're a minor, don't read the rest of this fic. probably should have made that clear at the beginning of the fic - but i'm learning.
> 
> enjoy!

“If you used my shower as a bucket and didn’t clean up after yourself, I would probably be avoiding you as well Sollux.”

The yellow-blood could feel the onset of a migraine beginning to throb at his temples, but that had little to do with his disorder and more to do with his moirail’s apparent pleasure in antagonizing him. Aradia had flittered into the room full of energy and bearing gifts in the form of water and high-protein snacks – both of which she had forced upon Sollux immediately upon entering his apartment. She’d unplugged his computer and commandeered his phone before urging Sollux into the pile she kept carefully maintained in his room. Tucked into the corner with blankets and mementos from their time as grubs growing up together, both Aradia and Sollux were curled into one another. His glasses had been placed on the night-stand and the only light in the room came from his own psionics and the glow of his phone against Aradia’s face as she went through his text messages.

“That’th not why I called you,” he grumbled, fangs poking against his lips as he gnawed on one of the protein bars Aradia had forced into his hands. He wore the ridiculous snuggie she’d gifted him in high school, and his hair was sticking up at all sorts of odd angles after Aradia had forcibly scrubbed his hair in the shower.

“You called me and asked how much trouble you’d get into if you hacked into the school’s system and dropped your Human Literature course – “ Aradia began, her burgundy eyes still focused on the phone in her hand, while another reached up and absently papped Sollux before he could open his mouth to argue. “There are two people in that course that you pay any sort of attention to. Dave, because and I quote ‘doesn’t fucking shut up’ and the human girl who nearly attacked you when we visited Terezi at the bookstore.”

“Dothen’t mean anything,” he’d grumbled around a mouthful of dry granola and imitation grub flakes. Of course, all grub flakes were imitation (no one actually ate grubs…anymore) – but the addition made the human protein bar much more palatable and a little more nutritious for troll diets.

“Of course it doesn’t,” Aradia shooshed him again. “But finding out that you slept with said human certainly was interesting.”

Sollux just grumbled to himself again, and his eyes narrowed at his moirail. “I’m never thepping foot into that fucking bookthore again,” was his reply.

The rust-blood simply gave Sollux that bright, dreamy smile she was so good at, before looking back at the texts her moirail had sent to said human in a panic. She had been surprised to have him be the first to reach out to her about needing help – not that Sollux would ever _admit_ to needing help, of course – but generally Aradia was the one checking in on him. She often had to be the one making sure he was taking his prescriptions, making sure he was eating when he was depressive, and watching over him when he was manic. He didn’t often reach out to her unless he was taking up his duties as a moirail for her, and while Sollux still adamantly argued that his text to her hadn’t been him ‘reaching out’ – Aradia knew otherwise.

“Oh, come on Sollux. It wasn’t _that_ bad,” she continued, knowing all to well the situation Sollux was referring to.

“It wath fucking traumatizing.”

_-_

_“ **You!”**_

_Both Sollux and Aradia had been startled by the loud and rather disgruntled tone coming from the clerk. They’d glanced at one another before focusing on the clerk in question – and all the color had drained from Sollux’s face. He’d forgotten she worked here._

_Terezi was leaning against the counter, her head propped up in her hands as to not look like she’d been dozing off. She jerked awake and stood alert at the sound of her co-worker’s suddenly yelling, and her face turned towards the direction of where Sollux and Aradia stood._

_“Hey guys!”_

**_“Don’t ‘hey guys’ to him!”_ **

_“What?” Aradia looked between the clerk and Sollux, and her brain was scrambling to try and pick up the pieces._

_The clerk had turned to whisper to her coworker, and Aradia had glanced back to Sollux for some kind of clarification as to what was going on – but he was already turning towards the door. The sound of Terezi’s cackling caught them both off guard._

_“ **THIS IS HILARIOUS!!!”** Terezi exclaimed, her voice even more raspy than usual as she wheezed in laughter. Her co-worker groaned and ran a hand over her face, and once more Aradia found herself at a loss. That was, of course, until words began to flow from the human’s mouth before she could stop them._

_“ **No it’s not!”** The clerk snapped to the still laughing Terezi, and Aradia watched as her focus snapped to the sight of Sollux attempting to flee. It was then that the gears began to turn in the rust-blood’s head. “Sollux you better take your hand off of that door because I swear to God I’m going to kick your scrawny ass.”_

_“Worst attempt at pitch flirt Iiiiiiii’ve ever heard,” drawled Vriska – who apparently was in the shop as well? Aradia did a quick sweep over the bookstore, as her moirail was getting yelled at and she would very much like to avoid any larger a scene than necessary. The only other person in the store was Terezi’…John (Aradia still wasn’t sure what to call the strange relationship the teal blood had with both John and the other human Roxy, but she was in no position to be judging after the quadrant flipping mess that been her own relationship with Sollux for the past several years)._

_“I’m **not flirting!** ” Came the human’s exasperated sigh. “Shut the hell up and mind your own freaking business **for once** , Vriska. And for god’s sake pay for you fucking shit!” _

_“A little better, but I’m not interested – “ Came Vriska’s reply, and Terezi was laughing even harder as it was clear that the human at the counter looked ready to explode._

_Literally._

_Aradia was constantly surprised by all the shades of pink some of these humans could turn, and the shade of fuchsia that crossed this particular’s human’s cheeks was quite impressive for one of her skin tone. But that was neither here nor there, as now the human was crossing the desk and storming up to both Sollux and Aradia. Her arm reached out as if to grab Sollux’s arm, but Aradia stood the in way of that. She did not know this human and while she did not find her (or any human, really) much of a threat in the physical sense, that did not mean Aradia was about to let someone approach her moirail like that._

_It seemed that the human seemed to finally notice Aradia’s presence, which wasn’t something the rust blood took any offense to. She watched as the human’s dark eyes seemed to widen, and she stumbled back a few steps before righting herself._

_“Are you his girlfriend?” She asked bluntly._

_“Yes,” Aradia replied simply, her brow arching at the human looking down at her._

_“Uhm…which – ah – quadrant?” The human was stumbling over her words now._

_“Why is that your business?” Aradia questioned, her head tilting. There was no aggression to her voice, but rather she was simply curious. Just what was going on here? All Aradia had needed was to replace her art eraser before her next class and now her moirail was getting yelled at and Aradia’s relationship with him being questioned?_

_“Oh my god. **Oh my god.** You cheated on your girlfriend? I’m a home wrecker. I’m a home wrecker and I helped you cheat on your girlfriend and now ever troll I’m going to encounter is going to know because apparently now I **smell like you?!”** The human was rambling now, and Aradia could see the pieces to the puzzle slowly fall into place with each rushed word that came from the human’s mouth. A glance back to Sollux showed that Aradia’s moirail was frozen in place, looking about as embarrassed as the human in front of them both and Aradia had never seen Sollux look to desperate to bolt in her life._

_The human continued._

_“It was bad enough that I had to call **Roxy** of all people to come over and help me clean my shower because I thought I thought it was **blood** in my shower but nope – apparently that’s just another normal troll thing and now I find out I’m a homewrecker and this is honest – “_

_“We’re not matesprits, if that’s what you’re asking.” Aradia finally replied, sounding more amused than was probably suitable. **Now** things were starting to make sense. “So no, you didn’t help Sollux cheat on me. Or anyone. He doesn’t have a matesprit nor a kismesis if that is what you’re worried about,” she offered cheerfully._

_The human just sort of stared down at Aradia, and the rust blood simply smiled at the dumbfounded look she received._

_“I’m Aradia, Sollux’s moirail. I didn’t know he slept with a human! Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course, I’m just surprised he slept with anyone!”_

_“AA, I’m going to die.”_

_“Stop being dramatic, Sollux! Now, excuse me, what was your name again?”_

_And thus had started the most awkward conversation Aradia had ever had the pleasure of facilitating! It had been incredibly amusing, having pulled Tiffany into a conversation without the inclusion of Sollux. In fact, neither of them had even so much as looked at one another as Aradia began to get all sorts of information from the poor human! By the end, both Tiffany and Sollux looked close to dying of embarrassment and Terezi very nearly passed out from laughing so hard. It had been great!_

_-_

Aradia remembered the bookstore altercation all too well and couldn’t help the small laugh that left her lips at the memory. Sollux had been appropriately embarrassed, but that hadn’t been the situation to drive Sollux to wanting to drop his Human Literature class and wallow in a hole of self-loathing. It had been him sending her what he deemed to be far too many texts and insisting that he was acting like _Eridan_ that had Aradia’s poor moirail in such a tizzy.

“Eridan isn’t even that bad anymore,” Aradia hummed, her hand reaching up to pap Sollux’s cheek again. “Which you would know if you left your room for more than just classes – “ her eyes slide over to her moirail who was adamantly staring a hole into the wall opposite of him. Without his phone – or any bit of tech, really – his hands were gripping tightly at his knees and tapping errantly at his legs to release some energy. Aradia didn’t stop him. “And, apparently, parties! In which you pick up cute human girls!”

Sollux’s glare focused on Aradia and his eyes narrowed even further when she laughed at him.

“Sollux. It’s _fine_. You’re really getting yourself worked up over something that isn’t that big of a deal,” Aradia urged. “The texts aren’t that bad. You sent her ten – which sure, is a little awkward since none of them were answered – but it was over the course of a week. And I’m sure she’s feeling just as awkward as you!”

“I feel thupid,” Sollux finally admitted.

“You shouldn’t. So you slept with a cute girl. You’re allowed to do that, Sollux. We’re in college. Self-exploration and what have you. It just got a little muddled because the communication wasn’t really there and that’s fine!” Aradia assured Sollux, now setting down his phone so she could wrap her arms around her moirail. He didn’t relax under her touch – yet – but as Aradia papped his cheek she could feel some of the tension slowly leave his lanky frame. “It’ll be alright, Sollux. If you want to avoid her because you feel strange, then that’s fine. But don’t drop out of your course, that’s a level of drama you just can’t pull out. Now, if you feel strange because you _want_ to talk to her, than that will change the entire conversation of this pile. So which would you like me to walk you through?”

Sollux tensed under her arms again, and Aradia just continued to pap him.

“I don’t know.”

“Yes you do, Sollux. I know which it is, but you’ve got to be the one to tell me,” Aradia urged.

Sollux’s reply was grumbled around a bite of protein bar and Aradia just laughed, smoothing her fingers through his hair.

“Alright then.”


	5. five.

“I’m never leaving my apartment ever again.”

“And you call me dramatic,” Roxy snorted as they spooned another scoop of ice cream into their mouth. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, Tiff.”

The brunette looked over towards her friend with an indignant look on her face, and Roxy found themselves ducking out of the way of a projectile pillow. They simply smirked and quirked a brow in their friend’s direction.

“Roxy, you don’t get it. I screamed at him in front of his moirail, your…Terezi and John…and _Vriska Serket._ ”

“And? Still doesn’t sound that bad.”

“I accused him of cheating on his moirail, _in front of said moirail_.” Tiffany was staring at her friend in complete and utter disbelief. Did Roxy not understand how awful this was? Did they not understand how _ridiculous_ Tiffany felt after having caused such a scene?

Roxy did understand, _of course they did_ , but they enjoyed pushing Tiffany’s buttons and _besides_ , everyone who knew of the situation thought it was hilarious. Not that Roxy would tell Tiffany that, of course.

“Said moirail is also a good friend of my cousin’s and has kept him in the loop of all said shenanigans, who then has relayed said information to me. I got the connections, girly. If you stopped wallowing in your own pity party, then perhaps I would share some sweet, sweet deets to you,” Roxy smirked. They watched as Tiffany’s brows relaxed from their furrowed position and her scowl as it shifted to something less frustrated and more curious.

“And what, pray tell, are these so called ‘deets’ you have to offer me?” Tiffany finally asked.

Roxy crossed one leg over the other and took their sweet time savoring the ice cream on their tongue as they enjoyed every moment of watching Tiffany’s resolve crumble. Roxy didn’t often get to interfere with their friends’ love lives in this way, and it wasn’t something they were often keen to do – but Tiffany needed to put herself out there after the train wreck that was her relationship with Wyatt. Grumpy troll hacker wouldn’t have been Roxy’s _first_ pick, but after much thought and deep conversation about the pairing with their good friend Nepeta – it wasn’t a _terrible_ idea either.

“I’ll tell you after you finally text the poor dude back,” Roxy decided, pulling Tiffany’s phone out of their hoodie pocket and tossing it towards the other human.

Tiffany nearly fell off her chair trying to catch the phone – Roxy did _not_ have good aim – and her lips pursed as she unlocked her phone. Honestly, she hadn’t even looked at the device since she’d stormed home the night before in a fit of absolute panic. Then Roxy had come over with donuts for breakfast and had been talking Tiffany through her awful and embarrassing outburst for the past several hours. She hadn’t even noticed her phone going off, but perhaps that made sense considering Roxy had clearly commandeered it.

Sollux had texted her. Several times over the past several hours, and perhaps this kind of behavior might have annoyed her from any other person – i.e. Wyatt – but she was too relieved that he didn’t seem to hate her or ridicule her for her outburst to care.

“Roxy! He texted me _this morning!_ You should have told me!” Tiffany groaned, and a hand ran over her cheek as she stared down at her text messages. “He’s going to think I’m avoiding him!”

“Well. You kind of were planning on it, weren’t you?” Roxy countered, “Miss ‘I’m never leaving my apartment again’,” they quoted. Lucky for Roxy, Tiffany had no more pillows to throw at them but that didn’t stop the brunette from glowering at Roxy from over the top of her phone.

“Shut up.”

Tiffany’s fingers hovered over the phone in her hand, and she took a few moments to compose herself. What did she even say? _Sorry I freaked out on you and accused you of cheating on your moirail? Sorry I have no brain-to-mouth filter and let everyone in on our business? Sorry that I assumed we even have business?_

It turned out that she didn’t need to say anything, as a text came through from his number instead.

hell0. this is aradia, s0llux's m0irail. s0rry ab0ut earlier!!! s0llux was a little nerv0us but i assure y0u there are n0t hard feelings. give him a few days and if y0u're alright with it, he'll reach 0ut then.

Tiffany felt a little weird about talking to another person when the situation involved herself and Sollux, but she had to remind herself that trolls did things a little differently. And Aradia was being too friendly for the human to really feel _too_ awkward about it.

_I understand! This whole situation has been a bit awkward, which mostly has to do with me blowing an actual gasket. I’d love to talk to Sollux if he ever feels up for it!_

wonderful!!! i will let him kn0w.

“So?” Roxy hummed, their brow raised and a slow smirk settling over their lips.

“Well, uhm. I didn’t hear from _him_ , per say, but his moirail replied instead? And she’s not telling me to never contact him again so like…That’s a good sign, isn’t it?” Tiffany questioned, setting her phone down and trying to calm the nerves settling in the pit of her stomach.

Roxy shrugged a little, “I don’t know. Terezi doesn’t have a moirail. I think I’m the closest she has to one but, ah, her and John and I don’t really _do_ the quadrant thing. I know the basics but we kind of just jump from one spot to the other. I know a guy who’s real into it, though, if you get to that point. He doesn’t really do the quadrant thing either, but dude’s so invested into the system he could recite ever faucet of the concept to you in _excruciating_ detail.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Quadrants are the same as relationships, aren’t they? I slept with the guy, and outside of knowing him from class it’s not like we know each other well enough for me to be considering anything meaningful,” Tiffany pointed out. “I just…uhm. I don’t know.”

“You don’t gotta know anything, Tiff. He’s a dude you think is cute and you bumped uglies. Just talk to him and see what happens. What’s the worst that’s gonna happen? You get turned down by tall, scrawny and nerdy? So what? Plenty of other fish in the sea.”

Roxy had a rather flippant attitude about the whole situation, which was something that Tiffany could appreciate. Perhaps she had been overreacting. Maybe there didn’t have to be anything weird, or awkward, or scary about talking to a guy she thought was kind of cute in his weird, grumpy, way? Tiffany simply hummed around another mouthful of ice cream, her thoughts drifting at Roxy began rambling about her classes instead.

-

A book dropped down on the desk in front of Sollux, startling the yellow-blood from the paper he had been bull shitting his way through. Literature in general was mind numbingly boring, but Human Literature was even more insufferable. It didn’t help that every time he tried working on his assignment, that all he could think about was stupid humans and their stupid romance system and how infuriating it was to always have one human in particular on his mind when he had definitively more important things to worry about and -

“Hi Sollux.”

Oh.

Sollux peered up to see Tiffany sliding into the chair across from him. His hands froze over the keyboard of his husktop and he felt even more blatantly out of place and uncomfortable than usual. He hadn’t seen Tiffany since the incident in the bookstore, even with them having exchanged texts and calls since then. So why was this so _awkward_? Sollux had never had the time nor patience for “awkward” in his entire insignificant life, yet here he was feeling as if his acid tract was ready to swallow him whole.

“You missed class today,” she started conversationally, before beginning to pull out her own textbooks and notebooks from her backpack. Sollux found himself watching her organize her materials in front of her and had yet to offer a greeting despite her continued rambling. “And last week too, so I hope it’s okay but I stopped by your apartment to see if you wanted to study together and they said you were here so I decided to drop by and see if we could...y’know...study together?”

Sollux was still staring at Tiffany, and found his claws tapping erratically against his husktop as he watched her. She kept organizing and fidgeting with her own supplies as she rambled, and her dark eyes would peer up at him occasionally between words. His fingers stilled.

“Thure.”

Tiffany blinked over at Sollux and he found himself staring back at her, before seeming to realize that she didn’t know what his ‘sure’ was referring to.

“We can thudy together,” he clarified.

Tiffany’s shoulders seemed to relax and Sollux found himself staring, again, at the way this soft, warm little smile pushed its way across her lips. “Great! Have you started your essay yet? I have an outline completed but that’s about it - “ she was speaking again, and Sollux was starting to learn that she liked to talk. A lot. Normally this was a trait he found grated on his nerves, but it was kind of endearing on her.

He found himself grimacing suddenly. He just used the word _endearing._

Tiffany, meanwhile, was still going on about their homework and everything else under the sun and Sollux just sort of sat there and soaked it all in. Or tried to, at least. He could feel a familiar throbbing creep up behind his eyes and sitting here listening to over stimulating rambling was probably not going to help his impending migraine, but he was going to get a migraine if he was listening to Tiffany or not.

So he sat there, and listened, and even let Tiffany take his laptop to read over his own essay so she could tear apart his weak writing to shreds and offered constructive criticism – with his permission, of course. They didn’t part until it was time for her to go to her next class, and Sollux suddenly found himself with both a refined essay worth several points more than the monstrosity he’d pulled together…and a date.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow night?” Tiffany asked, sliding her books back into her backpack. Sollux just blinked at her from behind his glasses.

“For dinner? I mentioned it earlier?” The tone to her voice was edges with that same nervous panic he’d heard when she’d went off on him in the bookstore, and it hadn’t taken Sollux long to realize that he hadn’t exactly been fully _listening_ when he’d agreed to dinner.

“Yeah, thorry. Migraine,” was his rushed response. “Dinner’th fine.”

Despite the brevity of his responses, Tiffany’s entire face seemed to light up and she was smiling again.

“Cool. I’ll text you about it later. Take care of yourself, okay? Drink some water and avoid bright lights,” she offered sweetly, and Sollux had to remind himself that she was a nursing student before he could grow annoyed with her suggestions of him taking care of himself. And with that, she was gone.

Sollux’ entire body slumped forward, and he found himself rubbing his temples with tense fingers.

“So, that went well!” Came another voice, and Sollux groaned as he watched another girl drop her textbooks onto his study table. He didn’t need to look up to recognize her voice. “You have a date! Do you need my to help you figure out what to wear? Do you ever have clean clothes? I’ll bring you something over tonight!”

“AA,” Sollux started, his tone calm. “Ith not a date.”

“Hmm. Right, well I’m still bringing you clothes over because it looks bad on me if you show up to a not-date in the same clothes you’ve worn to class for the past week.”

“Gog,” Sollux groaned. “You’re inthufferable.”

“I know,” Aradia hummed, before smiling at her moirail and turning her attention to the textbooks in front of her.


End file.
